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BJP reshuffle : More of the same thing, RSS on top |
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BJP president Rajnath Singh carried out a reshuffle of State organising secretaries last week, but observers say that it has not resulted in any fundamental shake up. To several sections in the party, the reshuffle of the organising secretaries, all from the RSS, has come as a mindless exercise. In the wake of the BJP’s poor show in the Uttar Pradesh and Goa Assembly elections, there was expectation that Rajnath Singh would go in for an organisational overhaul, replacing deadwood with leaders with political acumen and insight. But this has not happened. It also means that senior BJP leader L.K. Advani’s advice for an “honest introspection” into the party debacle in Uttar Pradesh is finding no takers in the party.
Observers say that the reshuffle was primarily guided by just one factor - loyalty to the party president and the RSS.
Uttar Pradesh which holds the key to the party’s fate in the Lok Sabha elections due in 2009, has been left untouched. Bhagwan Saran Mathur, a close associate of Suresh Rao Soni, Rajnath Singh’s patron in the RSS, has been shifted from Haryana to Madhya Pradesh which goes to the polls next year. Hriday Nath Singh who oversaw the BJP’s decline in Jharkhand has been removed from the State and given the charge of West Bengal, where the party has virtually no stake. Other changes are also of the same type and may not result in much refurbishing of the party.
Meanwhile, the BJP has announced that it is going to organise a team of what it called “strong party workers” for each of the estimated 15 lakh polling booths in the country. The booth level programme was decided upon at the party’s national executive meeting held recently.
In its preparation for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, the party has asked its workers to break bread with the lower castes and take the State Government’s development schemes to the last voter. This was spelt out at a Vikas Sammelan organised in Bhopal last week to mark the beginning of a series of programmes to woo voters ahead of the next elections.
Speaking in Bhopal on Friday, party president Rajnath Singh criticised the UPA Government’s move to introduce a Constitution amendment to define the term “minorities.” He said any attempt to define the term “minorities” once again would be highly divisive and destroy the country’s social fabric. Addressing a news conference, he demanded that the Government should get a new anti-terrorist law passed in Parliament. He said this is essential to boost the morale of the security forces.
Controversy over Jinnah article
The controversy over Advani’s remarks on Pakistan founder Mohd. Ali Jinnah has reignited with an article published in the Gujarat Government’s official mouth-piece describing Jinnah as a ‘symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity.’
‘Gujarat’, the State Government’s mouthpiece, published by the State Information Department, carried an article in its June 16 issue underlining the secular credentials of Jinnah. The article, written by a noted Gujarati journalist and writer, Gunvant Shah, points out that Jinnah’s best friend, his trusted servant, and his personal secretary were all Hindus.
The editor of the fortnightly, Sudhir Rawal, however, disagreed that there was anything controversial about the article or Chief Minister Narendra Modi had anything to do with its publication.
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